Day: June 4, 2017

Eating Enough Fruit And Veg Made Easy

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

We all know how important it is to get enough fruit and vegetables in our diet, yet the large majority of us fail to do this. It may not always feel like it, but eating the recommended amount of fruit and veg doesn’t need to be a challenge. Here, we’ll list some of the easiest things you can do to make sure you’re getting enough fruit and vegetables in.

Image: Wikimedia

Keep Them in the Open

Simply making the fruit and veg in your house more visible can be a great first step towards encouraging everyone in your household, you included, to get their fill. Don’t hide them away at the back of your cupboards. Instead, get a fruit bowl for the kitchen, keep it well-stocked, and have snackable things like carrot sticks available at the front of the fridge. Even taking the time to slice up apples, kiwis and so on can give you a little extra motivation to take a bite in passing.

Drink Them (Up to a Point)

Juice and smoothies are excellent ways to get your fill of fruit and veg, and make it feel easier. You can even start following a whole juice diet if you’re looking to lose weight. The next time you’re shopping for fruit, look for labels that say “100% fruit juice”, as a glass of these are guaranteed to give you a serving. Just be wary of the portion size, and make sure you know how much a serving is. It’s completely possible to wind up consuming more calories through juice and smoothies, even though they’re not exactly filling!

Think Frozen

Buying bulk amounts of peas and vegetables, and keeping them in your freezer, is an excellent way to make sure there’s always vegetables in the house. Frozen veg is remarkably easy to prepare, and can be kept for a long time, making them much more economical compared to buying fresh veg here and there throughout the week. Frozen raspberries and blueberries are also great to scatter over a bland cereal in the morning. Despite what you may have heard, it’s a complete myth that frozen fruits and vegetables are less nutritious than fresh ones, although the flavour can be a little dampened depending on where you source them from.

Get Started Early

Like a lot of things, the sooner you get started with eating your recommended amount of fruit and veg, the easier you’ll find it to polish it off. Start getting into the habit of making fruits or vegetables part of your breakfast. Adding sliced bananas or berries to your cereal is a classic, but you can also add vegetables to an omelette, berries to your yoghurt, or simply have a piece of fruit on the side. Soon enough, this will start to feel like part of the routine, rather than a chore you really ought to do. From there, you’ll have that much less to worry about through the rest of the day.

Start applying these tips, and you’ll find it so much easier to get your fill of fruit and veg.

How To Completely Change Your Look In 4 Steps

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

Whilst the thought of improving your appearance drastically always sounds like a pipe dream, that’s just the negative voice in your head getting you down. We’re programmed to criticize ourselves; don’t ask me why, but it’s the way things are. Still, you don’t need to put up with that. You don’t need to look in the mirror and sigh as you dream of the way in which you wish you’d look.

Healthiness and happiness should be the motivator to change your appearance and your life in general, so you need to push away vain thoughts. Wanting to look good for shallow reasons is never a good motivator because the negative voice in your head will always find something to say to put you down. You need to change your look for you, and it needs to be for the right reasons. Here are 4 steps to get you on the right track.

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Your body.

Your body is probably your worst enemy, as it is for most women. Our heads are filled with so many conflicting ideas as to what constitutes the perfect body. Some people say we should be as skinny as a rake, but other people say we should have voluptuous curves. It’s an absolute headache, and it’s all rubbish.

You don’t “have to” look any particular way when it comes to your body other than the way you want to look. In fact, to be more exact, you should look the way that makes you feel comfortable. Don’t starve yourself, and don’t over-eat. A healthy body should be your priority because there is no ideal size. If you eat a consistent diet and keep active on a daily basis then you’re doing everything right.

Your face.

Another aspect of your appearance that you want to keep healthy in a practical sense as well as in terms of its appearance on the surface is your face. Frequent moisturizing is crucial to avoid dry, cracked skin, and a clean face is absolutely essential when it comes to avoiding acne and other blemishes. There’s nothing wrong with a little make-up, of course, but try not to let your face become too oily during the day.

Mental health also affects appearance, so through practicing positive thoughts about your appearance you’ll reduce your stress and, in turn, your acne; it’s a positive cycle. You should also be looking after your dental health; your teeth shouldn’t just look white but actually be healthy. Look after your gums, in particular, by flossing and ensure that you brush your teeth two or perhaps even three times a day.

Your fashion.

Ah, fashion. It’s a love-hate relationship. We love pretty clothes, but we hate it when they don’t fit us or we think they don’t look quite right on us. If you’re lacking in confidence with regards to the fashion department then you could go on a shopping spree with your pals so as to have a team of advisors on what looks good or bad. You could also browse through online sites offering sleek and modern dresses for women because you might be selling yourself a bit short with your current wardrobe.

Again, don’t put yourself down; a good fashion sense isn’t some elusive concept that you can’t quite grasp. What’s most likely is that you never had the confidence to wear the pretty dresses or outfits you saw in shops or on other people; you need to rid yourself of these doubts and take a risk. Self-esteem is absolutely the key to changing your overall appearance, as we’ll discuss in the final step…

Your confidence.

This is the final step to looking good. Whether you want to try parting your hair on the other side or completely changing the color of your hair altogether, everything will come together if you just work it. People pick up on positive energy and confidence. You look more attractive when you feel more attractive, so you should be making yourself look the way you want to look; that way, you’ll be happier about your appearance, and this will make you look more attractive to others.